[graeme]

The thing is, those top three are quite prestigious in Canada. Maybe not as prestigious, but being a smaller country we have less room for minor shifts in ranking value.

MIT could make 5x the money while still taking in extremely qualified students. But, they're a non-profit, so they don’t really care about money. The prestige has more of a perceived value.

Us top 10 schools have a lot of money. But you’d be astounded to see what they could collect if they were truly profit motivated.

[chillacy]

If US schools are Veblen goods then we can look to luxury goods as a comparison.

Consider Ray Ban/Burberry who at points in the past crossed the line from exclusivity into mass market and suffered a reputation hit, only to go under new management and tightly control the supply.